Hendrix Awards Three New Odyssey Professorships

CONWAY, Ark.
(March 7, 2019) – Hendrix College recently awarded Odyssey Professorships to three
faculty members. Each Odyssey Professorship carries an endowment to support
faculty projects that offer students new opportunities for engaged learning,
such as internships, travel, and undergraduate research.

“Odyssey
Professorships give faculty the resources to pursue a particular project over
an extended period of time,” said Dr. Peter Gess, the College’s associate
provost for engaged learning and a politics and environmental studies professor.
“The program has encouraged a wide variety of in-depth projects and significant
cross-disciplinary learning opportunities, and will continue to do so through this
latest group of professorships.”

Individual
faculty members or small groups of faculty may apply for the professorships on
a competitive basis. The Committee on Faculty reviews and recommends the
proposals, which are approved by the President. The new Odyssey Professors are:

This Odyssey
Professorship has a research component supporting two activities: student
research for the next edition of International
Human Rights, a textbook published by Routledge for which Dr. Whelan is a
co-author; and research travel support for a separate project on human rights
and development. The professorship will also provide financial support for
fielding a 12-student Model UN team to attend the American Model UN Conference
in Chicago in November 2019.

Dr. Allison Shutt, Professor of History: The James and
Emily Bost Odyssey Professorship for Global Awareness (2019-2022). Title:
Designing Games for History.

Dr. Shutt will
work with students to research, design, write, and play an original
role-playing game. The professorship will provide opportunities for students
from any major to participate at any level, from enrolling in a game design
class and attending a roleplaying conference to doing primary source research
and test-playing the game in progress. Selected students will also have the
opportunity to mentor other students and to act as classroom instructors for
HIST 201, Doing History. In addition, the professorship will support Professor
Shutt’s academic research and writing.

This professorship
will bring opportunities for engaged learning in social justice, creative
activity, and career development for students, staff, and faculty members of
the Hendrix Theatre Arts and Dance Department. Students and Professor Muse will
create performance programming for incarcerated women at Hope Rises in Little
Rock. A teaching artist from Tectonic Theatre Project will support a course in
Theatre and Social Justice. Students will travel to the SouthEastern Theatre
Conference with Brandon Smith, technical director, where they will attend
master classes and a job fair, and interview with graduate schools. Holly
Payne, designer, will develop “The Show Must Go On…after graduation,” a program
to prepare students for a life in theatre after college. Professionals from the
industry will speak to the students about the nuts and bolts of career building
to vocational paths in theatre.

The Odyssey
Professorships are an extension of the College’s nationally recognized engaged
learning initiative, the Hendrix Odyssey Program. Since 2005, the Hendrix
Odyssey Program has required students to complete at least three hands-on
learning experiences before they graduate. Students and faculty can apply for
funding to support a proposed Odyssey project. The College has awarded more
than $4 million in Odyssey grants since the program’s inception.

About Hendrix College

A private liberal
arts college in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix College consistently earns
recognition as one of the country’s leading liberal arts institutions, and is
featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change
the Way You Think About Colleges.
Its academic quality and rigor, innovation, and value have established Hendrix
as a fixture in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876,
Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. To
learn more, visit www.hendrix.edu.